Today marks the 20-year anniversary of the day that Chad and I first met.

We were introduced by Brian, a mutual friend. Chad had gone to architecture school with Brian in Florida, and then I sat across from Brian when I worked at Chong Partners Architecture in San Francisco. When Chad moved to San Francisco, he initially stayed with Brian and Brian’s wife, Stella, before finding an apartment, and Brian spent the next year and a half telling me, “I should introduce you to Chad. He’s single, and he’s a good cook!” Chad was invited to some happy hour events during that time, but we were never able to connect.

Fast forward to January 2006. My friend Janna, who also worked with me, pulled Brian aside and said, “We need to finally introduce Chad and Juli.” They organized a Chong happy hour on a Friday, and Brian invited Chad to attend. Before the event, Janna told me, “I think I’ve met Chad before, and I’m pretty sure he’s short and blond.” I’m tall for a woman, but I figured, what the heck, I’ll at least meet the guy.

We had around 15 or 20 Chong employees come to the happy hour. I thought only Brian and Janna knew that this was a set-up to make introductions, but it turns out that EVERYONE was in on it. We were all seated around this huge community table at a local restaurant. Chad arrived late, and when he walked in, I noticed that 1) he was not short and 2) he was not blond. I thought he was very cute! Raul was sitting next to me at the time, and he excused himself to go to the restroom and told Chad to take his seat. Honestly, I don’t think Raul even needed to go to the restroom, he just wanted Chad to sit next to me.

Of course, Chad and I hit it off right away. We had our first date a couple of weeks later, and we got engaged in October of that year with a wedding the following June.

We’re celebrating our 20 years of knowing each other with dinner at home. Honestly, Chad’s cooking is far superior to most restaurants, so I’m perfectly happy with tonight’s menu of chicken cutlets, roasted baby potatoes, and arugula salad.

Stay tuned for a post on February 4th, the anniversary of our first date.